Research facilities such as universities and other research laboratories often maintain large numbers of animal cages. For relatively small animals, such as rodents, cages may be arranged in racks having several rows and columns of cages. Provision is made for humane conditions for animal safety. To ensure such humane conditions, it is desirable to monitor the conditions in the cage. It is also important to be able to identify cages and animals to ensure proper care and procedures are carried out with the appropriate animal.
One issue that arises from such an arrangement is the location of particular animals and cages within a room that may contain several racks, each with a number of rows and columns of cages. Different animals are employed in a variety of experiments, typically by a variety of researchers. Researchers from time to time must locate a particular animal cage and remove the cage from the rack so that the animal within the cage may be observed or tested. At times, several researchers may be working with several cages.
While the cages may be labeled to allow a researcher to identify a particular cage, the researcher must locate the cage among the various racks, rows and columns. An effort can be made to require assign positions of cages within racks, so that a cage identification can be associated with its location, similar to a library book shelving system. However, it is often impractical or at least inconvenient to require specific shelving location requirements of the cages. The movement of racks, human error and expedience can thwart efforts to maintain a strict cage location scheme.
Moreover, it can be necessary for a cages location to be changed to improve a particular condition, such as temperature or air flow for the animal within the cage. At times, movement to another rack or merely to another location within the same rack can improve the animal's conditions. With a strict “hard-coded” cage location scheme, such a change can require moving an animal out of one cage and into another, which is not always practical.
Accordingly, one solution is to allow for flexible cage location. To attempt to track the location of the cages within the racks, a paper log or computer log may be maintained. In such a log, a researcher that replaces a cage within a rack may log the rack number, and possibly the row and location of the cage. A research that desires to locate a particular cage consults the log to determine the latest location of the cage. While this system allows for flexible cage location, it still consumes researcher time noting and recording cage locations within the log. The log may become cumbersome and difficult to use, and is always subject to human error.
In some cases, an emergency condition may exist with a particular animal that requires immediate intervention. If the cage has been mislocated, or mislogged, the animal's life may be unnecessarily endangered.
Accordingly, there is a need for a more reliable method of cage location in a laboratory environment that allows for convenient relocation of cages. There is a further need for such a system that can readily assist researchers in locating a particular cage within a space that contains one or more racks of cages.